Dixie Chicks Honored by ACLU

Posted on Feb 12, 2007

The Dixie Chicks were honored in December by the ACLU for defending liberty and the right to free speech in the face of overwhelming pressure. Lead vocalist Natalie Maines said she’s proud to be a card-carrying member and “It hasn’t taken courage to stand strong, just a first-grade education.”

On Sunday the group won five Grammys to resounding applause—a sign of how times have changed since the band first came under fire for criticizing President Bush in 2003.

I am glad you are ashamed shrub is from Texas (even though he is really not a NATIVE, so technically not FROM Texas) and I am glad you, Emily, and Martie stood by your principals.

It would have been very easy for you to take the stage in England and perform. Your Blue-grass fiddlin’ and pickin’ are simply wonderful and the English folks who heard you express your shame would not have noticed had you not spoken out about this criminal.

My music is all over the place - Rhythm and Blues is where I am most of the time. Regardless, I am a fan because you are worth caring about.

As a resident of South Carolina, I still get goose bumps when I remember and re-tell the story of the Dixie Chicks first live concert after their self imposed hiatus after the right wing media slammed them for their opinions of that “pre-emptive war”.

It was scheduled for the Bilo Center in Greenville, SC. The Charlie Daniels band offered to trade Chicks tickets for a concert they would put on the same night in Spartanburg SC. The local media kept telling us the Chicks concert would be done in, and that protesters outside would outnumber those in attendence.

That night in Greenville made me more proud of Americans than I had been in years. Something like 6 people traded in their tickets. The protesters outside overwhelmingly supported the Chicks, and the picture on the front page of our local paper showed a lady whose sign read “I support Natalie”. The crowd inside was an absolute sellout, and they were lovingly compassionate about the Dixie Chicks.

When our girls took the stage the roar was deafening, and approaching never ending. Natalie stood with wetted eyes, and finally could be heard over the crowd.

She said “They said you wouldn’t come” The crowd absolutely roared. She followed “We KNEW you would come!” The roar was deafening!

God bless the Dixie Chicks, and citizens like them who speak their minds and support what is right.

Anyone who’s thought about it realizes that the gov’t—having bombers and tanks, bazookas and nukes, etc.—ren’t afraid of or concerned with or about privately-owned pop-guns.

And anyone who’s studied the debates of that which became the “Bill of Rights” and Second Amendment knows it has nothing whatever to do with “individual” or “private” anything. The only “individual” right debated was that of conscientious objection by those “religiously scrupulous of bearing arms”—and that was voted down.

Thank you to the Dixie Chicks for standing up, unafraid, and being counted.

If you don’t stand up for something, then sit down and do as you’re told. Every day, our freedoms are taken away in the name of creating Democracy in some way far away place in the world. what a crock of crap.

We no longer have habeas corpus. They can tap our phones, come into our houses without warrants, and soon will take your guns away, y’all.

Pay attention. Are we giving up our own freedoms for the ‘game’ they’re playing about democracy somewhere else? This isn’t a Reality show on Fox network.

Bless you ‘Chicks’........I was a very real ‘hippie’ in the right decade, and I assure you that it did not take too many of my friends being bashed in faces and heads by the NYC tactical police force in Thompkins Square Park on Memorial Day 1967 for me to wake up to yet more of the truth of my time than I already had…..much more…. I saw there and then that being ‘hip’ was not enough….and I soon learned the Bill of Rights (sadly, Not taught in my education), and they are still, last I heard, ‘on the books’.......
Perhaps posting The Bill Of Rights on every power pole in America could help in these even more troubled times?....Copy machines and staplers ready!.......
Again…Blessings upon you ‘Chicks’ and, upon your courageous work for Beautiful Harmony and for Beautiful Truth…...........STRIVE ON!

Thank you Dixie Chicks for standing up agianst the war, oil and media machines. Cheney, etc. tried their best to destroy you. They did not succceed! Yea for you!
I also love your music.
Always wishing you the best,
Ramsay

It is cutomary for people of Polish descent to say “STO LAT” which means live to 100 years and to the Dixie Chicks I say STO LAT ,\may you live to 100 years for your gallant determination for singing the truth.

I remember John Lennon being pilloried by the religionuts for telling the truth about British youth. (And about a significant number of Beatles fans: given the choice of church or Beatles, we’d choose Beatles.

I’m not for “country” music—which is made in the city—real or fake. But I am for the courage to put one’s money at risk by putting it where one’s mouth is. Freedom of speech, when it utters the truth, is more priceless than all the money on the planet.

I’m not ready to make nice, either—and never will be as concerns domestic enemies of my country.

Hurray for Natalie, the “Chicks” and those who stood with them (family, friends, roadies, producers, agents, etc.).

As she points out in her speech, one shouldn’t have to consider whether or not one is brave enough to make a statement in our ‘democracy’ - our democracy should be so strong that speaking out would never need to require courage, only conviction.

Unfortunately, as the nation’s treatment of the Dixie Chicks points out, this is not currently the case.

Congratulations to the Dixie Chicks for speaking out and to the ACLU for insuring they still can!

What a breathe of fresh air. As ridiculous as this may sound, her unpretentious, straightford use of her freedom speech right there made me proud to be an American. It also made me hopeful I can exercise mine more fully.

Many believe that they would do the right thing to support our Democracy, even if they were called on to pay a high price for that. Whether or not we would actually do it when the price needs to be paid is not known. The Dixie Chicks do not need to wonder about this.

Wow. If this was science class we would call this a chemical change, as opposed to a physical change, in that The Dixie Chicks debacle has permanently changed the girls with nope hope of return to their original form. If this was bible study we’d call it being born again. But in everyday life I just say good for them. They’ve come out on top after all the struggle of the past five, or so, years. It still strikes me as odd how so many people who now see the war as a mistake and Bush Jr. a liar still have a bad taste in their mouths toward the Dixie Chicks. The frost of being proven wrong is mighty cold, even for right-wingers. - TheEnd